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<DIV>"You can't be this open. After all, even the river has to have banks to
keep the water in." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>There is a marvelous systems group in the UK that has
spent a lot of time thinking about the biology and ecology of rivers. Your
friend seems to be saying -- when you reach the banks, you reach the
river. But do you? Where does the river begin, where does it end, and how
is it bounded? Conventional wisdom would place the beginnings in the headwaters
-- but when you get there, you never quite find that first drop dropping -- the
genesis of the river. Could the genesis be the clouds and the rain? The complex
and unending weather systems ? The whole world? The cosmos itself. As for the
banks -- they are a sometime thing. Here today and gone tomorrow. And as a
matter of fact they don't really hold the water in -- for there is a constant
flow between the river and the ground water of which it is a contiguous part. So
how broad is the river? As for ending where is that? At the mouth?? But when you
fly over a river as it runs into the sea it becomes obvious that the flow of
fresh water and sediment extends far out -- until it blends with the surrounding
sea. But no sharp line -- So what is the river anyhow? And if you can't contain
it, how do you define it -- and without definition control is a phantasm. Or so
my british friends say.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Harrison</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Dr.<BR>Potomac, MD
20854<BR>USA<BR>301-365-2093<BR>207-763-3261 (summer)<BR>website <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com">www.openspaceworld.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com
href="mailto:wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com">Craig Gilliam</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, May 29, 2005 8:36 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Craig</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Harrison:<BR><BR>I meant to tell you an experience that was
sombering for me. The other day,<BR>I was speaking with a group of
professional clergy about donig OS. I<BR>mentioned the Law of Two
Feet. One minister's eyes became large and he/she<BR>said, "We do not
want our people to learn this one. If they did, what would<BR>it mean
for Sunday morning homilies? Would anybody be left insdie." I<BR>sensed
in the air that this was an existential moment for the group.
There<BR>was a deep gasp in the room as if something was deeply threatened,
and I<BR>guess it was. In the collective psyche, I felt the earth
shook.<BR><BR>This stuff is quiet frightening to a culture that is permeated
with control.<BR> And we often describe control in words like order,
organizing. As we<BR>talked about the process, someone else mentioned,
"You can't be this open.<BR>After all, even the river has to have banks to
keep the water in." In the<BR>conversation and metaphor was the
pervasive issue of fear of lossing<BR>control. We haven't learned,
it seems to me, that we never can keep the<BR>river in with all of our levee
systems, etc. It will find its way to where<BR>it needs to go. And
even if we could keep it in, and New Orleans struggles<BR>with this issue
regularly, what destruction does that create to the land<BR>around
it?<BR><BR>Control, in my experience, is so pervasive in our culture and many
of our<BR>institutions. In some institutions, it seems to have been
there for<BR>thousands of years, so their is a lot of
multigenerational<BR>energy/reinforcement attached to it. Still, I came
back to open questions<BR>about possibilities. Of course, in that
conversation, I had to be aware of<BR>the parallel process going on within
myself that maybe they were mirroring.<BR><BR>I am open to any thoughts or
reflections?<BR><BR>Thanks!<BR>Craig<BR><BR>*<BR>*<BR>==========================================================<BR><A
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